Thursday, June 3, 2010

teach maori history to bind us together

I agree with this call - seriously how much maori history or history from a maori persepctive did you learn in school? If NONE then that was more than most. It is not good enough. There is rich and interesting history that is OUR history. This maori history is our history - the history of our country, our land.

I would like to see maori history and perspectives as COMPULSORY for all students in this country including english language students, hell - I'd make it compulsory for ALL PEOPLE. Tax breaks when you can recite your whakapapa, or korero in te reo or explain the history of the region you live in. I wonder how many rich people would get the tax breaks then!

Imagine how great this country will be when we are all paddling the waka in unison.

"The head of Maori and Ethnic studies at Canterbury University is backing his counterpart at Victoria University in attacking the quality of history taught in schools.

Rawiri Taonui says Peter Adds is right to say race relations is the loser if children leave school without ever getting a Maori perspective on history.

He says while understanding of Maori culture and language has improved dramatically over the past couple of decades, the new perspectives on history which have come out of the bicultural Waitangi Tribunal investigation process have not made their way into the syllabus.

“If you say to people what happened at the battle of Orakau where Rewi Maniapoto, two or three hundred of his people were killed trying to escape, what happened at Ngatapa where Maori were stripped naked and thrown from cliffs, what happened at Hanley’s Shed in the Whanganui-Taranaki district where colonial cavalry, some of whom were decorated later, charged down a small group of 8-10 year small boys and hacked them to death with sabers. People just don't know that,” Mr Taonui says.

If the public knew more about the history of te Urewera, its attitude toward's Tuhoe's claim for the national park might be quite different.

How do we make positive change in this country? How do we empower indigenous people? How do we respect and support maori? This is one place to start. Let us all learn the history of this land, the people, the legends. This country did not begin in 1840 and it is time we actualised that into our learning at school.